I would like to ask the letter writers of a Sept. 1 letter why they didn’t mention that the tax increases they’re talking about will apply only to those making more than a quarter-million dollars a year.

It will not apply to investments or income for people making less than $250,000 a year. In fact, the Obama administration is pushing to extend the tax cuts for middle-class, working Americans.

Maybe the writers are listening to the ad from Fred Thompson, which says that taxes will go up by 10 percent across the board.

That ad and the graphic shown in it has been disproved by the fact check sites as an outright lie.

Are right-wingers too lazy to check their facts beforehand or is it that they want to believe it so bad that “facts don’t matter with them.”

I would also like to ask right-wingers why, if tax cuts to the rich will stimulate the economy and create jobs, that hasn’t worked so far since those policies have already been in place for the last eight years or why the last three Republican administrations that tried those policies left us with record debt.

Frank Grygus

San Ramon

Sham and shame

Recently, we received a notice from the city of San Ramon where we reside informing all residents that our quarterly color rotations (annuals) that we as taxpaying residents enjoy so much are being eliminated to fallow ground.

In addition to this news, all of the water interests around our fair city will be shut down to save money. At the same time, we were informed that our central park is now adorned with a new $30,000 sculpture, a sculpture from an artist in Boston, not from a local artist.

No, an artist 3,000 miles away. I’m not so sure the majority of our residents would choose a sculpture over our quarterly color rotations and existing kinetic water art already in place, which has been the essence of our city for a decade and a half.

As if this pill isn’t hard enough to swallow, we find that our city manager at the top of these cost-cutting decisions is being paid $356,542 per year. Between the new unneeded sculpture and the overstuffed salary of our city manager, I think it would not have been necessary to turn the fountains off and take the color from our street corners.

Send the sculpture back and get our city manager’s salary in line with reality. This is a sham, and a shame.

Bob Stonhaus

San Ramon

Abusing animals

After reading the Aug. 20 story about the people who were injured when a bull jumped out of the bullring into a crowd, I felt nothing but anger that people find enjoyment in seeing animals abused for their pleasure.

People who pay to see animals tormented should not be surprised if they get hurt when the animals attempt to escape.

Marilynn Hutchison

San Ramon

Missed the point

In his Aug. 26 column, I believe Ruben Navarrette missed the entire point in the Dr. Laura Schlessinger n-word controversy and opted to write an easy piece rather than an insightful one.

I actually heard the call as it happened and was a little shocked at her approach, but the fact is, she “said” the n-word, and I think that needs to be separated from “using” the n-word as a racist.

She was trying to help a caller; she was not being racist. I have never heard her say one thing that could be interpreted as racist in the years I have been listening to her. She repeated the word several times, but it was the theme of the call.

The next day, she issued a long and heartfelt apology. But, of course, it was too late. The protests had already begun, and sponsors were fleeing, as most do in any controversy. Now, she is out of a job. I would have preferred reading a column on how a public figure can be pilloried for just saying the n-word in any context and what that means.

Mel Jacobson

El Sobrante

Upset with Fiorina

As a woman in my mid-20s, I find it disheartening that Carly Fiorina would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, as reported in your article “Boxer, Fiorina clash in hard-hitting debate.”

Many young women feel that they have to choose between a career like Fiorina’s and raising a child. The issues page on Fiorina’s own campaign website states that she will work to keep “decisions about care between doctors and patients.”

Apparently, this commitment does not extend to the sorts of difficult reproductive decisions some of us are faced with as we work toward the educational and career excellence Fiorina exemplifies for California women.